The tumultuous last season for Texas ended on a positive note.
To end a season full of disappointing performances, disappointing defeats and training rumors, No. 20 Longhorns defeated Colorado in the Alamo Bowl 55-23 to end the year with a 7-3 record.
The game may be a kind of passing torch for Tom Herman’s show. Sam Ehlinger started as a defender in almost every game in Herman’s four years in Texas. Although he has the option of returning in 2021, Tuesday night’s game was Ehlinger’s last game of the last year. Unfortunately, it ended prematurely.
Ehlinger completed 10 of 16 shots for 160 yards and a touchdown, helping the Longhorns to gain a 17-10 lead at halftime. But he did not return from the locker room in the third quarter and was discarded due to a shoulder injury. Later, he returned to the sideline with his right arm in a sling. And if this was really his final game in a UT uniform, Ehlinger finished second in the program’s history in passing yards (11,336), touchdowns (94) and conclusions (923).
With Ehlinger away, reserve Casey Thompson filled in admirably. Thompson, a sophomore, completed eight of his 10 shots for 170 yards and four touchdowns. But it was not Thompson who shone the brightest among young people in Texas. It was the first running back Bijan Robinson.
Robinson, on the 223-yard multifunctional yard at the end of the regular season against Kansas State, was the best player on the field against Colorado. In the first quarter alone, Robinson ran 27 and 50 yards, scored in an eight-yard run and picked up a 14-yard touchdown pass.
In the first game of the second half, Robinson exploded across the line for a 66-yard gain to set up a 13-yard touchdown pass from Thompson to Joshua Moore. Robinson later scored his third touchdown on a Thompson kickback screen that went 23 yards and increased Texas’ lead to 41-16.
In the end, Robinson finished with 183 yards and a touchdown in just 10 races along with two receptions for 37 yards and two more scores. Moore, another underclassman, led the receiving group with five receptions for 86 yards and two touchdowns.
Fourth consecutive bowl victory under Tom Herman
With the win, Texas is now 4-0 in bowling under Herman. The Longhorns beat Missouri in the Texas Bowl in 2017, defeated Georgia in the Sugar Bowl in 2018, and beat Utah in the Alamo Bowl last year.
Each time, the victory of the bowl generated a level of hype entering the off season and the following season. However, Herman’s teams never responded to that hype.
After the Sugar Bowl victory (you know, the one where Ehlinger said Texas is “back”), UT moved on going 8-5 in 2019. It was a disappointing year, but the blowout bowl victory over Utah played an important role in raising people’s hopes for the program coming in 2020.
Once again, UT fell short of expectations. The Longhorns started the year 2-2, including another loss to Oklahoma in the game Red River. At the end of the year, hopes for a title game for the Big 12 Longhorns were still alive – until they lost their lead in the loss to Iowa.
It was a game that increased the intensity on Herman’s hot seat. Urban Meyer’s search for the school was no secret, but Meyer was not interested and UT athletic director Chris Del Conte finally issued an indifferent vote of confidence, in which he simply said that Herman “is our coach”.
Therefore, the show will continue in 2021 with Herman at the head. The conversation about hot seating is also not going to subside. And with the way guys like Robinson and Thompson played against Colorado, the usual Texas hype machine must be alive and well again during the off-season. Will this be guaranteed? If previous seasons are any indication, it is unlikely.
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